Summer, the season of joy and pleasant climes, is ushered in
with one last fiery blast from the bluster and rain of March and April. May Eve, April 30, is the night when witches
the world over commune to celebrate the sacred marriage, the union of the Lord
and Lady, the Sun and Moon.

German witches celebrated the night
in honor of the goddess Walpurga - their May Queen – with wild festivities on
the Brocken, the highest peak of Germany’s Harz Mountains. Since Saxon times, the region had a
supernatural reputation; the gods were believed to manifest there on May
Eve. With the advent of the Christian
faith, the pagan celebration that had come to be known as Walpurgisnacht was
truncated; the Church canonized the German goddess, creating her St. Walpurga,
and moved her feast to February to discourage the orgiastic rituals that
associated her with May. But this did
little to discourage her followers, who continued to celebrate Walpurgisnacht,
though in a decidedly less overt manner.

“If you love me, come discretely down to meet me, under the greenwood
tree.”

(Traditional
rhyme.)

The festivities of Walpurgisnacht give way to the light of
the fires of Beltane, May 1st, the first day of summer in the Old
Style calendars. Fire played a prominent
role in Beltane celebrations; before the great bonfires were lit on the Celtic
hills, the hearth-fire of every home was extinguished. Bearing faggots and torches from the great
fires, folk would rekindle their hearths, reclaiming them from the darkness and
recognizing the growing light of the summer sun.

It was
common to choose a King and Queen to reign over the celebrations of May Day,
but theirs was no tender love. Indeed,
in May, “the lusty month of May,” romantic love, trysts, and sexual desire
blossomed feverishly alongside Nature’s bountiful blooms. May’s association with sensuality and
pleasure caused many minstrels to celebrate it as the month to “make much joy”
– and the lush allure of greenery made a natural lover’s bower. On May Eve, men and women, noble and common
alike, would venture into the greenwood to go “a-Maying,” and would spend the
night out, making love in woods and fields.

“I have heard it
credibly reported . . . that of fortie, threescore, or a hundred maides going
into the woods over night, there have scaresly the third part of them returned
home againe undefiled.”

“The
Anatomie of Abuses,” Philip Stubbes, 1583.

The May Pole

No image comes more readily to mind when one thinks of May
than that of people dancing joyfully around a flowered and beribboned May Pole.

In addition
to gathering flowers from the woods, it was also the custom to bring back a
young tree. Stripped of its branches, it
would be set up in the midst of the village and decorated with flowers and
long, flowing ribbons.

The May
Pole was a powerful fertility symbol, representing the Sun God in the guise of
Green Man, and embodying the spirit of growth and the promise of seed. Its placement in the earth – the phallus of
the god into the mother’s womb – continued the highly-sexual imagery of May
celebrations. Groups of dancers would
circle the pole “sunwise” (or deosil), binding it about with the long ribbons,
and “calling up the power” to strengthen it with dancing, singing, and
drumming.

Old-style
May Day celebrations included the march of a white-clad virgin, representing
day and the bloom of summer (another incarnation of the goddess queen),
accompanied by another female clad entirely in black, representing night and
the dearth of winter. Fairs, mummer’s
plays, milk and the rejuvenating waters of the new season were all celebrated
in lore and superstition at this time of year.
And fire, always fire, as the power of the sun increased and the wheel
of the year turned toward the solstice of June.

Celebrating Saint Sara la Kali (May 25th)

In May, the Roma (Gypsies) everywhere, but particularly in
Europe, celebrate their patron saint, Sara la Kali (or “Sara the Black”) with
exceptional and genuine devotion, making pilgrimages to the saint’s famous
French shrine.

Although never canonized, Sara has
been venerated by the Roma at least since medieval times as the Gypsy woman who
drew the three “Marys of the Sea” (Saintes Maries de la Mer, thought to be Mary
the sister of Lazarus, Mary the mother of St. James and St. John, and Mary
Magdalene) to safety from the waves after they had fled Palestine in the wake
of Christ’s crucifixion. She is called
“la Kali” because legend speaks of her origins on the coast of Egypt, where her
skin was bronzed by the sun.

Each May, on her feast day, the
statue of the saint is carried from its cave-like shrine in a great procession
and held aloft to the gathering of pious Roma pilgrims. The statue is then carried to the spot on the
French shore where the Roma believe the legendary meeting with the Three Marys
took place. The statue is gingerly
placed in the crashing surf where it is anointed and blessings are bestowed
upon it before it is safely returned to its home. The solemnities are followed by great fanfare
and celebrations among the Roma, often lasting for days.

For generations only the Roma were
allowed to enter the shrine of St. Sara, making her the most personal of
intercessors for a people generally bereft of advocates. Recently, however, the Roma-only rules were
suspended and Gadje have been allowed access to the enclave of the Black Saint
of the Gypsies.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

At
one time it was the responsibility of augurs and soothsayers to interpret what
was considered to be signs sent from the gods.
Eventually, the predictions made by soothsayers and fortune tellers
became common knowledge and passed into folklore.

Omens have been known
since ancient times and are today referred to as superstitions. They vary from country to country and culture
to culture, and sometimes can even have completely reversed meanings in
different folk traditions.

The following are some
examples of how to interpret the present and anticipate the future through
observing various omens, and highlight a variety of superstitions.

SORTILEGE

Divination by casting or
drawing of lots, derived from the Latin sors,
the word for lot, and sortilegus,
meaning diviner. An alternative name for
sortilege is cleromancy, from kleros,
the Greek word for lot.

There are many types of sortilege. In aleuromancy, answers to specific questions
were baked inside small balls of dough and chosen at random, thought to have
been a common practice until the 9th century A.D. Another form of sortilege is astragalomancy,
divination by casting small bones (usually the vertebrae or ankle bones of
sheep). Belomancy is divination by
arrows and probably dates back to the Babylonians. It was also practiced by the Scythians,
Arabs, and some North American Indian tribes.
Opening a book at random and taking an omen from the first words read –
bibliomancy – is another form of sortilege.
It is also known as stichomancy: a “stitch” is a line of verse or a
short section of prose. Divination from
a book of poetry is sometimes known as rhapsodomancy. In the late Middle Ages the works of the
Roman writer Virgil were the most popular choice, and bibliomancy was known as
the sortes Virgilianae – the
“Virgilian lots.”

A large variety of objects have been used for lots. In Africa, lots could be sacred stones or
carved wooden or bone divining sticks – the tradition varies from tribe to
tribe. Divining sticks are also known
among North American Indians and in parts of Asia. In Polynesia, a coconut was spun and answered
questions according to how it fell. In
Japan, slips of paper inscribed with omens for the future were placed in
containers and drawn at random. Pessomancy
(psephomancy) is divination by drawing or casting of specially marked
pebbles. Many African shamans keep bags
of “wise stones” that are cast to foretell the future. Greek lots were specially marked wooden
counters, drawn from an urn or cast on the ground (although the oracle at
Delphi used beans as lots). In China,
“fortune cookies” are used, and are familiar to almost everyone.

Many of us have unthinkingly determined our future by
lots at some time in our lives – drawing straws to select a person to carry out
a particular action, for example, or tossing a coin to make a decision. Sweepstakes, lotteries, bingo, roulette are
all forms of gambling that depend on casting or drawing lots.

Sortilege Using Stones

Choose nine small, round-edged stones; you
should be able to hold all nine in one hand. Mark symbols on one side of each stone,
according to the following chart. Shake the stones in your hand, concentrating on
your question, and cast the stones in front of you. Using the chart provided, read only those stones
whose symbols are showing face-up.

Rings (drawn as a triskele, three rings intersecting to form a triangle): Relationships, marriage, harmony, union

Sun: Health, outer life, a man or men

Swords (drawn as two crossed): Drive, energy, strife

Waves (drawn as two or three wavy lines): Intellect, travel (especially by sea or over water), dreams and the subconscious.

Animal and even human bones can be used for divination and prophesy.

INTERPRETING ITCHES

Top of Head: Promotion, good luck

Right Eye: A meeting

Left Eye: Disappointment

Left Cheek or Left Ear: Compliments

Right Cheek or Right Ear: Derogatory remarks

Inside Nose: Grief, bad luck

Outside Nose: Kissed by a fool

Mouth: Insults

Neck: Illness

Back: Disappointment

Left Shoulder: Unhappiness

Right Shoulder: An inheritance

Left Elbow: Bad news

Right Elbow: Good news

Left Palm or Ankle: Bills to pay

Right Palm or Ankle: Expect money

Abdomen: An invitation

Loins: A reconciliation

Thighs: A move

Left Knee: Gossip

Right Knee: Good news

Shins: Unpleasant surprise

Left Foot: Unprofitable journey

Right Foot: Profitable journey

Knives and Scissors

Dropping a knife on the floor: A male visitor

Dropping a pair of scissors: A disappointment which can be averted by stepping on the scissors before picking them up.

Scissors landing point down when dropped: Illness

Crossed knives: Bad luck

Breaking a pair of scissors: Bad luck

A knife left blade upward: Danger

Giving a gift of a knife or scissors: Can cut a friendship unless a pin or coin is given in return.

A new knife used first on anything other than paper or wood: Good luck

Placing or finding a knife in the cradle of a newborn child: Good luck

Lithomancy

This is divination using precious stones (although colored glass beads can be used as a substitute). In a darkened room, scatter the stones or beads. Light a candle, close your eyes, and clear all thoughts from your mind. As soon as you open your eyes, notice which color of stone first reflects the light back at you.

Colorless (clear): Success and happiness

Red: Romance

Dark red: Passion, a wedding

Yellow: Infidelity

Green: A wish will come true

Turquoise: An unexpected opportunity

Blue: Good luck

Violet: Grief

Purple: A quarrel

Black: Bad luck

Lychnomancy

This is divination from the flames of three wax candles. Arrange three candles in an equilateral triangle and light a fourth candle some distance away to provide enough light for reading. Switch off all the lights. Using the same match, light your three candles and read the omens presented by the appearance of their flames.

A flame wavering from side to side: Travel

One flame burning brighter than the others: Great success

A glow or radiance at the tip of the wick: Prosperity

A curling or spiraling flame: Enemies plotting

Sparks: Be cautious

Rising and falling flames or candles burning unevenly: Danger

Flame sputtering: Disappointment

Flame unexpectedly extinguished: Great misfortune

Other Candle Omens:

New Year’s Candle Divination

For this you will need twelve candles and a room with a wooden or concrete floor.

1.Remove any furnishings that might catch fire.

2.Next, arrange your twelve candles in a wide circle and light them all.

3.Name a candle for each month of the year.

4.Start at the January candle and jump over each in turn until you have completed the circle.

5.If you knock over or extinguish any candle, this signifies bad luck for that particular month.

6.Any candles still burning after you have completed the circle indicate good luck for the candles those months represent.

True Lover Candle Divination

For this you will need a deep bowl of water, two halves of a walnut shell, and two small candles (birthday size) or wax matches.

1.Using a little melted wax to fix them in place, stand one candle in each half of the walnut shell.

2.Name one shell for yourself, the other for your lover.

3.Set the little shell boats afloat in the bowl of water.

4.Light the candles.

5.You will be true to each other if the two boats float side by side with the candles burning evenly.

6.Your relationship is doomed if the boats drift apart, overturn, or the flames go out.

7.You love more than you are loved if your candle burns longer than that of your lover, and vice versa.

Lampadomancy

This is divination using a single oil lamp or a torch flame.

Flame with a single point: Good luck

Flame with two points: Bad luck

Flame with three points: Good luck

Flame bending, wavering: Illness

Flame unexpectedly extinguished: Disaster

Some Omens of Good Luck:

Four leaf clover

Picking up a pencil found in the street

Meeting sheep

Keeping a piece of oyster shell in your pocket

A ladybug landing on you

Carrying a rabbit’s foot

A horseshoe, prongs pointing upward

Sleeping on unironed sheets

A wishbone

Spilling your drink while proposing a toast

Bats flying at twilight

Breaking uncolored glass, other than a mirror

Walking in the rain

Sleeping facing south

A gift of a hive of bees

A sprig of white heather

A peapod containing nine peas

Seeing a bluebird

A robin flying into the house

A strange dog following you home

Hearing crickets singing

Putting your dress on inside out

A white butterfly

Rubbing two horseshoes together

Burning your fingernail parings

Picking up a pin

Cutting your hair during a storm

Catching two rats in the same trap

Finding a hairpin and hanging it on a hook

Sneezing three times before breakfast

Seeing a load of hay

Meeting a chimney sweep

Looking at the new moon over your right shoulder

Picking up a nail that was pointing toward you

Some Omens of Bad Luck

An owl hooting three times

A five leaved clover

Peacock feathers (especially in the house)

A rooster crowing at night

Meeting a pig immediately after a wedding

Opening an umbrella indoors

Emptying ashes after dark

A bat entering the house

Putting a hat on a bed

Singing before breakfast

Giving away a wedding present

Borrowing, lending, or burning a broom

Bringing an old broom to a new house

Bringing eggs into the house after dark

Cutting your nails on Friday

Bringing white lilac or hawthorn blossom into the house

Putting shoes on a chair or table

Killing a seagull

Mending a garment while you are wearing it (this harks back to when corpses were sewn into their shrouds)

Keeping your slippers on a shelf above head height

Seeing an owl in the daytime

Putting an umbrella on a table

Blossom and fruit growing together on the same branch (except on orange trees)

Meeting a grave digger

Buttoning a button into the wrong button hole

Putting your left show on before your right

Sitting on a table without keeping one foot on the ground

Killing a cricket

A picture falling

Breaking a glass when proposing a toast

Dropping a glove

Getting out of bed left foot first

Putting a pair of bellows on a table

A ring breaking on your finger

Three butterflies together

Red and white flowers in the same arrangement

Bringing Christmas greenery into the house before December 24th

Leaving Christmas decorations up after Twelfth Night (January 6th)

Looking at the new moon over your left shoulder

Taking anything out of the house on New Year’s Day

Removing your wedding ring

Meeting a hare on the road

Violets flowering out of season

Wearing an opal unless you were born in October

NOTE: The information contained in this article is presented as INFORMATION ONLY.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Hoopoe (family Upipidae) is a colorful,
medium-sized bird noted for its distinctive “crown” of feathers and a long,
thin tapering bill that is black with a fawn base.It is commonly found across Afro-Eurasia
(less frequently in the British Isles) where it shares a habitat with its
nearest relative, the Cuckoo, and distant cousins the Lapwing and the
Magpie.The Hoopoe is widespread in Europe,
Asia and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Madagascar.Most European and North Asian birds migrate
to the tropics in winter.In contrast,
the African populations are sedentary year-round.Like the Latin name, upupa, the English name is an onomatopoetic form which imitates the
“hupupup” cry of the bird.

Hoopoes
are distinctive and have made a lasting cultural impact across their range. Islamic tradition teaches that the hoopoe
obtained its golden crest from King Solomon for not paying homage to
women. Afterward, so many greedy hunters
sought out and killed hoopoes for their fabulous crests that the hoopoe begged
King Solomon to remove it; he turned their crests into feathers instead. The hoopoe’s relationship with this great
king is further documented in the Quran:
When Solomon was about to punish the bird for being absent from his
court, the hoopoe – known for its habit of eavesdropping – returned hastily,
saying: “I have found out a thing that
thou apprehendest not, and I come unto thee from Sheba with sure tidings.” The hoopoe brought tidings of the woman who
would be Solomon’s queen, and its coming to the king with the news is the
origin of the saying, “A little bird told me . . ."

From the
Punjab of India to Minoan Crete the bird was considered remarkable; it was
thought that the Garudas of Hindu and Buddhist belief were originally
hoopoes. In the Bible, in Leviticus
11:13-19, hoopoes were listed among the animals that are “detestable and should
not be eaten,” and were listed in Deuteronomy as not kosher, possibly due to
their reputation as unusual creatures.
(The hoopoe was chosen the state bird of Israel in 2008!)

Hoopoes
were seen as a symbol of virtue in Persia; a hoopoe was the leader of the birds
in the Persian book of poems The
Conference of the Birds. The hoopoe
is also cast as the king of birds in the ancient Greek comedy The Birds by Aristophanes. One of the most infamous tales involving a
hoopoe is related by Ovid in his Metamorphese,
where, in Book Six, King Tereus of Thrace – married to Procne – rapes his
wife’s sister, Philomela and cuts out her tongue. In revenge, Procne kills their son Itys and
serves him as a stew to his father. When
Tereus sees the boy’s head, which is served on a platter, he grabs a sword but
just as he attempts to kill the sisters, they are turned into birds – Philomela
into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow.
Tereus himself is turned into a hoopoe.
The bird’s showy crest is said to indicate his royal status, and his
long, sharp beak is a symbol of his violent nature.

Hoopoes
were thought of as thieves across much of Europe, especially in that they often
partnered with cuckoos in the raiding of nests; the holes bored by woodpeckers
are a favored nesting place of the hoopoe.
Epithets across their range also distinguish the hoopoe as a “dirty
bird” or a “dung bird,” after the mother hoopoe’s habit of soiling its nest to
discourage incursions by predators – animal and human alike.

This
habit of the female hoopoe gave rise to the old saying, used particularly
against truculent women: “It is an evil
bird that defiles its own nest.”

Medical
practitioners of the ancient world found that many parts of the bird were
marvelously effective in the treatment of a variety of illnesses and
diseases. The Arabs call the hoopoe the
“Doctor because of its medicinal qualities; as a therapeutic the bird appears
in Egyptian, Coptic, and Greco-Roman medical prescriptions, in Pliny, and in
the Syriac Book of Medicine; and as late as 1752, its medicinal virtues were
listed in the English translation of the Pharmacopoeia
Universalis. Even today, nomads of
the Sahara still believe in the bird’s medicinal powers.

Closely
related to the belief is specific medicinal values is the conviction found in
antiquity and still current that the whole, or certain parts of the hoopoe
possess magical powers. These parts are
the heart, the blood, the eyes, the head, the tongue, the wings, and the
feathers. Magical powers are also
claimed for the eggs of the hoopoe and for the fabled stone – the lapis quirinus – found in the hoopoe’s
nest.

It is
said that the heart of the hoopoe is especially used by magicians and people
who “perform evil deeds secretly” – in other words, who practice black
magic. On the other hand, the hoopoe is
often recommended as a protection against witchcraft. Tradition informs us that the hoopoes heart,
when placed upon a sleeper at night, will cause him to reveal hidden things;
the hoopoe’s heart, if carried on a person, will cause everyone to love that
person; drying and pulverizing the heart of a hoopoe, and placing it under the
pillow at night will allow one to dream of the location of hidden treasure.

Concerning
the blood of a female hoopoe, we learn from Albertus Magnus that it, mixed with
the centauria plant and added to the
oil of a burning lamp brings about strange hallucinations. Medieval bestiaries warn against anointing
oneself with the hoopoe’s blood when falling asleep, because then one will
dream of being suffocated by demons. It
is, however, not only unpleasant dreams that the hoopoe’s blood brings, if only
one ties a piece of cloth impregnated with the hoopoe’s blood upon one’s wrist. The wearing of a wig made of the hair of a
hanged man, and moistened with the blood of a hoopoe, makes one invisible. A 15th century German tract states
that the hoopoe’s blood, properly applied, can inspire a man to love a woman;
in Haggadic writings, the blood of the hoopoe is mentioned as a curative.

The eyes
of the hoopoe are a counter-charm against all kinds of witchery, if they are
used in a talisman with feathers that accumulate in the gizzards of owls,
together with a small splinter of wood.
In order to be effective, these three ingredients must be blended in the
last night of the year. The hoopoe’s
eyes are also mentioned as having been carried about in a little sack by
hunters as a talisman against the Devil, evil spirits, witches, and sorcerers,
and as a powerful defense against all manner of black art.

The eyes
of the hoopoe can furthermore make one who carries them on his person
universally loved, accepted. They
inspire cleverness and gratitude; they transform enemies into friends. If carried in a bag they help one to buy
profitably. They assist one in being
acquitted in court if worn on one’s chest in the presence of the judge; at least
they put the judge in a favorable state of mind.

No
merchant can ever deceive you if you carry along in a sack the head of a
hoopoe. The tongue of the hoopoe helps
in overcoming forgetfulness. Accuracy of
shooting is guaranteed through the possession of a charm, composed of the
hearts of three young swallows and the right wing of a hoopoe. The feathers of the hoopoe are one of eight charms that increase the sale of bread
and protect against vermin; when placed
upon the head, the feathers relieve headache.The eggs of the hoopoe are said to be of interest to witches who use
them “for sorcery.The stone found in
the hoopoe’s nest – the lapis quirinus
– when placed under the head or upon the chest, causes one to reveal secrets
while asleep, and increases fantasies.

In the superstitions
that have to do with the cry or the song of the hoopoe, we find that it
predicts fair weather if its “huppuppup” is heard frequently in spring; on the
other hand, if the bird cries hoarsely it is said to foretell rain. Again, “If the hoopoe do sing before the
vines bud, it foreshadows great plenty of wine”; and, if upon hearing hoopoe’s
call for the first time in the spring of the year, one rolls around on the
ground, one will not suffer lumbago. In
Scandinavia and northern Europe, the same cry (“huphup”) prophesies war and
mourns the dead.

In
Oriental-Semitic traditions, the hoopoe has the faculty of speech and occupies
a special niche among speaking birds, echoing its distinction as King Solomon’s
“little bird.” The same traditions also
describe the hoopoe as a waterfinder, a natural “opener,” and this serves to
strengthen the bird’s title of “Doctor.”
As a waterfinder, the hoopoe is said to be able to see through the earth
and point out hidden springs, a virtue that further endeared it to those living
in desert regions.

The Queen of Sheba and the Little Hoopoe

The power
is, usually, inherent in some magical object (stone, herb, root, worm, etc.)
which the bird owns or which is accessible to it. In the case of the hoopoe, it is said to
possess the famous Shamir, one of the
ten marvels that were created in the twilight of the earth’s first
Sabbath-day. This Shamir is said to be
an exceedingly small worm, in size not larger than a grain of barley, and was
thought to have been used by Moses to engrave the names of the twelve tribes of
Israel on the breastplate of the High Priest.
Later it was employed by Solomon, who obtained it through cunning means,
to assist in the erection of his temple.
According to legend, the great king went to the stone quarries, drew the
outline of every stone that would be needed in the building, and placed the
Shamir worm on these outlines. As the
worm crawled along, the stones split asunder without any noise, “so that there
was neither hammer nor ax, nor any tool or iron heard in the house while it was
building” (I Kings: 6-7).

In
extra-Solomonic “opener” legends, the use to which the hoopoe’s opener is put
is of a much less exalted nature.
Ordinarily, the hoopoe employs the Shamir to burst through obstacles
separating it from its young; it is also said to be placed by the hoopoe in its
nest to “ward off fascination.” If a
man, usually through stealth, obtains possession of the magic object, he abuses
it by gaining through its power treasures that do not belong to him. One of the earliest mentions of the hoopoe’s
possession of the Shamir is found in Aristophanes’ legend of Tereus, Procne,
and Philomela.

In some
legends the hoopoe’s opener is a magic plant – sometimes the centauria, in other texts the cornflower
– that has another distinct virtue, that of restoring to well-being one who has
imbibed too much of the fruit of the vine.

The
Egyptians held the hoopoe in high honor for its devotion to its parents, and
for this reason made it the symbol of gratitude in their hieroglyphs and engraved
it on the scepters of their rulers. One
legend, c. 1100 B.C.E., describes the hoopoe as “plucking the feathers and
licking the eyes of the old birds, and “the young warm them under their wings,
and sit over them until they have grown young once more.” Leonardo da Vinci later confirmed this
ancient observation when he noted in his Bestiary,
“The young [hoopoe] build a nest for the parents, feed them, pluck out old
feathers, and restore eyesight to their parents by licking and by means of an
herb.” Because of this practice, the
hoopoe became associated with the ability to restore youth and impart
immortality on those found worthy.

Among
the English, who knew the hoopoe but little, and then only in temperate seasons
when the birds would follow waves of warmer weather that might encompass the
region, it had the reputation of “feeding upon dirt and dwelling among
graves.” This seems to add weight to
examples of its use in Medieval “nigromancy,”
or necromantic magic.

A
15th century necromantic manuscript tells how to summon a demon
in the form of a horse by using conjurations, a ring with the
Tetragrammaton inscribed on it, and the blood of a hoopoe.

Another
manuscript, instructing in the matter of love magic, states: “. . . If you draw it on a Friday with
the feather of a hoopoe and with its blood on a freshly prepared piece of
parchment, and touch a person with it, you will be loved by that person
above all others forever.”

And,
“There are recipes for madness . . . which involve not imitative magic but
poisons (made from the body parts of a cat, a hoopoe, a bat, a toad, and
other creatures) to be taken in food or drink, or a fume to be inhaled, whereupon
the victim will be bedeviled (demoniabitur),
losing his senses and memory, and not even knowing who he is.”

And
also, “The markings on this cloth are to be made with the blood of . . . a
hoopoe, [and] the magician is meant to use the heart of this bird as a
writing instrument.”

In the Americas, there is
only one known instance of a hoopoe having been sighted. In 1978, in Alaska, a lone European hoopoe
was seen by birders feeding among natural debris that had collected in the
waters of a thawing creek. The sighting
was duly noted with the annotation, “Possibly significant that the bird is
feeding at Old Chevak shaman’s garden.”

No doubt
the magical little hoopoe knew exactly why he was feeding there; but maybe this
is something he will never tell.

NOTE: The information provided in this article is collected from folklore, and

is presented as INFORMATION ONLY. Animal abuse is punishable by law.

The Author and Publisher are not responsible for the intentional misuse of the

Such sinister
ingredients would surely deter all but the foulest of hearts from filling the
cauldron. Or, would they?

To
learn to prepare any recipe, be it for a hearty stew, herbal remedy, powerful
poison or an offering to summon entities of the darkest nature, you must have
the proper ingredients andin the proper
concentrations.

So
how does one begin to decipher the instructions found in those grimoires penned
in darkness and secrecy hundreds of years ago?
As Glinda the Good Witch said to Dorothy, "It's always best to
begin at the beginning."

Our
short garden journey begins with lessons in history and vocabulary, necessary
essentials to understanding all that follows. The path to discovery leads back
to the first century A.D. to a Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides who lived
approximately between the years 40CE and 90CE. Dioscorides was a physician,
pharmacologist and botanist during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. As a
surgeon with the emperor's army he traveled extensively studying and gathering
knowledge, elements and herbs from locations all over the Roman and Greek
world. In the waning days of the Roman Empire, Dioscorides compiled a volume of
manuscripts called the "De Materia Medica" which
described more than six hundred remedies of vegetable, animal and mineral
origins. Within the manuscripts there
also existed a substantial discourse on poisons.

These
volumes remained in use over generations and throughout the Dark Ages, most
especially in Europe. Found within these widely distributed and greatly
respected writings of science were strange and exotic substances such as
"Fat of a Head" and "Semen of Helios."

In the second century A.D. there came a Greco-Roman
doctor, pharmacist and philosopher named Claudius Galenus who lived from 131CE
to 201CE. Claudius Galenus, better known as "Galen," continuing
Dioscorides’ traditions, furthered the quest by writing approximately 500 books
and papers, becoming, without question, the most respected scientist of his
day. His writings, which covered every aspect of medical science, shaped the
methods of formulating in meticulous dosages the herbal tinctures and potions
that could be used for means both sinister and benign. Galen's work surpassed
the longevity of the "De Materia Medica" exacting a heavy influence
on physicians
and herbalists throughout the Middle Ages.Galen eventually made his home in Egypt as a practicing physician until
his death in 201CE.

The
word "galenic" is still used today to describe medications made from
vegetable or animal ingredients. Once again, in a widely distributed and
respected scientific work were the sinister references to the severed body
parts of animals and men.

So
what, aside from developing the exacting proportions of elements animal,
vegetable and mineral required for all manner of uses, did these two men
perpetuate and indeed, validate?

The
answer is...a secret code.

The
use of code names assigned to various herbal ingredients had been initiated in
a series of Ancient Greek texts dating from the second century BCE to
approximately the fifth century CE.
These texts, known today as The Greek Magical Papyri, contained
fragments of spell books...repositories of arcane knowledge and mystical
secrets. The papyri's spells, recipes and formulas were written in code and
shorthand and detailed everything from the summoning of dark gods and demons to
"folk Remedies," love potions and poisons for ridding oneself of
unwelcome lovers. Both physicians obviously were well familiar with and
borrowed heavily from (perhaps even contributed to) the texts and of the
Papyri.

Remembering
that what is used to cure may also be used to kill, Dioscorides and later Galen
saw to it that the elements and herbs used in the makeup of potions used for
both curses and cures were obscured within the tradition and used the same code
as that found in the Greek Magical Papyri. Since both Dioscorides’ and Galen's
works remained in use for centuries throughout the world, the use of these code
names for herbs was continued by all manner of physicians and sorcerers, many
of whom were likely unaware of the names’ sinister origin. The concern was that
if the learned did not take precautions, the general population would have
access to the instructions for all manner of working with elements and herbs.
That is to say, the secrets to making all manner of magic with these substances
would be available to all.

That
simply could not be allowed.

Of
course, these secrets inevitably were murmured from one to another and over time,
the eye of newt and toe of frog found their way into the cauldron and craft of
the grune hexe. And so it is here that
we begin our vocabulary lesson.

Going
back to Shakespeare's formula for a "hell's broth," here are some of
the translations:

"Tongue
of dog" is referring to hound's tongue (Cynoglossom officinale), an
herb allegedly having the power to quiet the barking of dogs.